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I’ve been blessed today to be able to accompany my son to his Jr. Beta convention.

Watching the talent segment a young lady began to sing “Jesus Take The Wheel” by Carrie Underwood.

My son knows me well. He knew I would be in tears. He was sitting with his friends and looked up at me with deep concern in his gray eyes. I nodded and took a deep breath. Praying to hold it together in the gym full of BETA members and chaperones.

The lyrics touched me……
Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can’t do this on my own
I’m letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I’m on
Jesus take the wheel

The song was over. I took a deep breathe. I smelled thieves and Joy essential oils from my diffuser necklace.

Next, 2 young ladies walked up. The music started and within 2 notes my son looked up at me once again. This time he said, “Mom, don’t do it.” He KNEW I was about to lose it. One of the girls began “I heard there was a secret chord- that David played and it pleased the Lord…”

Oh no….hold it together, take a deep breathe., get out of here, don’t listen, look at facebook. Do SOMETHING! Anything to keep from losing it.- went through my head all at once.

On a good day I can’t listen to “Hallelujah” without crying. I can’t listen to kids sing without crying and I certainly cannot when I’m on the brink of tears every second of every day since my dads diagnosis.

I picked up my diffuser necklace and inhaled deeply and tears ran down my face. No one paid attention.

Next up, group talent. A group of three walked up and the young MC announced they were dancing to “Bulletproof” in honor of those effected by cancer.

What the —–? What is this? Why?!!!!!

I wanted a day with my son, to forget about life’s troubles. I wanted to enjoy him and his innocence and sweetness.

“Jesus take the wheel”, I said inside my head.

We got through the day. We had a blast. Pushing through the emotions to make it about what it was supposed to be. A mom and son day. That is exactly what it was and I will never forget it. I even embarrassed him by dancing to the “Cupid Shuffle” with his friends.

When you are dealing with a loved one diagnosed with stage 4 cancer it/ they NEVER leave your mind. (Atleast that is the case for me.) It’s almost like when you have kids and they never leave your mind. Everything reminds you of them.

I see gray- brain cancer comes to mind. I see a man with white hair- I think of my dad. A motorcycle drives by- my dad. My youngest wants to play with his tool set- my dad. Bud light- my dad. My house- my dad. One of the kids needs something and it’s not the best time for me- I think – if I could only have a few minutes with my dad. I give them a few more hugs and a few more kisses, always remembering what is most important. Our connection. Our love.

Today my phone rang. The name on the screen read “DAD”! I was so excited to answer the phone. My dad was calling me. Sitting in his hospital room and he thought to call me! I used to talk to him every day. I shared everything with him. We talked about everything. He would give me his opinion. He would show support. We shared so much of our lives. If something happened good or bad he was the person I talked to after my husband. That came to a screeching halt and I miss it more than imaginable.

I knew he would not sound great. I imagined he would sound tired and his speech would be weak again. When I heard his voice I had to fight back the tears. Hearing his voice was awesome. He is alive and we are talking! Hallelujah! He sounded weak, slurred. Heavy tongued is how I describe it. He was worse than at Christmas time. He asked if I knew about his seizures. We talked about his muscle strength. He said he loved me and wanted to talk to Handsome Hubby.

I hung up the phone In tears and have not recuperated.

A few days ago a friend told me she hoped I had someone to lean on right now. Someone to vent to. I simply replied “Thank you.” What else could I say?

I have my husband who is almost as emotionally vested in this as I am. My other ROCK is lying in his hospital room and needs me to be his rock.

In March of this year I was blessed to chat with one of my best friends best friends. We had never met because they live in California.

Our mutual friend had passed away months earlier. We were both devastated. We connected with each other on Facebook. For me it was me still hanging on to my friend. I wanted to soak up anyone and anything to do with her.

My new friend is a business woman. She is a go-getter. She is highly ranked in a fabulous business in which I was wanting to be a part of. I was teetering between 2.

For several months I prayed about which business to join. I needed to find my passion. As I prayed and if I allowed my mind to quiet I would see images pushing me one direction.

I love both of these products…. I loved the security of knowing if I joined one company I would have a connection with my friend.

But as I prayed I saw images. I saw images of my brother who was handicapped. I saw images of my family. I saw images of helping others. Within these images I felt comfort. I knew God was leading me to my answer but I Kept wanting to be led the other direction, too. In my daily life I saw with open eyes what I needed to do. The effects of the products God was leading me to were benefiting my family every day.

I made my decision and joined an awesome team! My goals are large! My faith is larger! God led me here to where I am. My faith will help me to attain these goals.

These goals encompass the development of two separate foundations created to help children and their families. One foundation will help families hold everything together when they are struggling with health issues with a child. I pray I can send someone in to their home to keep things running while a family is split because one parent has to be away with a child in the hospital while the other stays home trying their darnedest to hold it all together. They will cook, clean, chauffeur etc for
free to the family. My mother needed this.

The foundation will cover many other services to the level each individual wants or needs.

The second will be to offer the use of essential oils to children in pain and their families. My brother was only able to have local anesthesia for every procedure he ever had. He lived in pain. When he passed away my mother was given the gift from God of seeing him float out of his human body with a smile on his face. There was no pain. Pure peace. I cannot
Imagine the pain he lived in and could not express. Parents need the comfort of oils as well. The trauma, sadness and stress of not knowing if your child will be ok. Not knowing if you can trust the doctors. Not knowing if your protocol is right. Living in a hospital to care for your child. Financial burdens. Relationship problems from being apart. The list goes on and on.

There really is an oil for everything. My thought is why not try? What do I have to lose? More importantly— what do I have to gain?

If you find yourself thinking someone is merely trying to make a buck off of
Facebook post after Facebook post please allow yourself to think of this blog and know that there is something deeper than their pockets. Something besides money motivates them.

My sister in law asked me in December to write a piece for her new blog Live Braver.

She asked me to write about my weight loss journey, how I have inspired others and about my success despite the obstacles I have been presented with.

To be honest I have sat down many times to write about my weight loss. I can’t. My weight loss did not require bravery. It required discipline.

I have gone through difficult, horrible times in my life that did require bravery but writing about them puts my family in an awkward position.
For that reason I will not write about those things.

I would like to post something anonymously but something tells me that isn’t too brave. Hiding behind words on a computer screen while telling someone they too can overcome horrible situations isn’t brave, is it? Putting a name to a story shouldn’t matter. The story is what matters, right?

To Live Braver is a relative term. Living braver for one is not the same for another. Also, the act of Living Brave changes as our lives evolve. What does it mean to Live Brave? According to their site it is …….

Live Braveris a resource for those seeking to step beyond the confines of fear, for those seeking a more inspiring, fulfilling, and rewarding life.

The ultimate goal: to help and to support each other in finding the courage to take steps towards a life we love.

Some of us feel as we have “come out of the womb” fighting. Some of us don’t feel we are challenged until later in life. Either way, one day, we all need to Live Braver. Should Live Braver. Step out of the confines of FEAR. Fear of acceptance, being loved, not being loved, failing, succeeding, plain ole fear. How we do this, in my eyes, defines us.

Accepting the overwhelming sensation when fear envelops your heart and mind so that it does not change your soul is quite the obstacle.

Our brains have been trained from the womb on how to handle situations Our id, ego and super-ego are in constant control.
Fight or flight? Keep calm or lose it? Cuss someone or don’t say a word? Study or decide defeat? Accept love or push someone away? Sadly humans feel from a place of fear before love. All actions almost always require fear based responses until you decide to think otherwise. It is a choice. An ego based decision.

For example, my husband doesn’t always say things the way I would like to hear them. Recently losing 80 pounds, I was getting ready for my brothers wedding a week ago. Complaining about my arms I wanted to change dresses. My husbands response was “If you think they look fat now what do you think they looked like before you lost 80 pounds?” I looked at him and said “much fatter.” If you knew me you would know I’m the most insecure person you will ever meet. You would expect me to cry, sulk and change dresses. What I have learned to accept with love ( rather than fear losing him) most recently is that my husband loves me unconditionally. He was not coming from a mean place. He is blunt, as I am. He said what he was thinking, which I respect more than fluff. It was an honest comment not meant maliciously but from LOVE. He was saying “You lost 80 pounds!!!!”

In recent months I’ve worked hard to train my brain to first come from a place of LOVE. I have had to let go of those in my life that do not. Those that lie, are two faced and didn’t value me as I did them. In turn, I have made room for more LOVE with existing relationships. This, to me, is how I chose to Live Brave now.

A year ago, to Live Brave was to act as Pro Se in court. When I was 12, to Live Brave was to embrace my new life with my step dad and new siblings. To Live Brave changes as you evolve.

Someone once said to me “It’s not the story. It’s the message.” That’s a hard pill for me to swallow. As a writer, not professional by any means but a writer solely as an outlet, the message IS the story. My story. Your story. We all have stories. We should not be ashamed of our stories or hold back from telling them out of fear. We are who we are based on OUR STORY. If there is discomfort in hearing someone’s truth, honestly, mine isn’t easy to tell or to hear, I feel you should look within. They have spent their life living this story that may or may not be easy for them to tell. Who are we to stop them because we are uncomfortable hearing it? Who are we to say “uh, can you just stick to the message? I’ll get more from that. To Live Braver that day might be to tell their story. To accept their harsh past. To share that reality with you. To bare their soul. Think about it…….

Quite a few years ago I began my journey of attempting to live cleaner. This task is both easily done and difficult all at once. Conflicting product information, conflicting views, as well as what our government allows in our food and products makes it difficult, to name as few things. Companies and individuals that share the “live clean” common interest make it easy to weed through the malarky.

The desire to live clean occurred by chance. A freak accident. I was Matron of Honor in one of my best friends wedding. We were making bags for
out of town guests to leave at their hotels. There were a lot, as the wedding was out of town. My hands full I walk into her house I did not greet her dog first as I always did. Merely leaning down to put the things on the floor I started to turn to greet the dog. As I turned he growled and lunged forward. His left fang grabbed my upper cheek and pulled down. 2 1/2 inches.

I honestly don’t remember how many stitches I had. I can barely remember the dogs name. There’s a way I remember names– going through every letter of the alphabet, sounding out almost every phonetic sound possible. Finally,,,,, MAVERICK came out of my mouth. That’s it. I’d known him since he was a puppy. Other than me not greeting him first and being at his level when I finally did we still don’t know why he bit me. A guard dog— pit bull and Dalmatian mix. I was lucky he let go. I was lucky he wasn’t an inch higher or my eye would have been part of the bite. Plain and simple,I was lucky.

My doctor said to keep it covered with sunscreen. Thick white coverage. I wanted the best. In my research I found there was not a “best”. Each has pros and cons.

At the same time another great friends sister was getting involved with a startup company out of Austin, NUTRITION FOR THE SKIN. Now know as Nuvante

This was my introduction to “clean” products. I got in at the ground level of the company as a forefather or something like that. I learned a lot about protecting your skin but soon realized there were many chemicals in these products. They helped people but I didn’t see a difference chemically between them and over the counter products and no one could explain it to me well enough.

A few years went by. My sons kindergarten teacher and I become best friends. She is part of a wonderful company, Arbonne

PURE. SAFE. BOTANICAL.
These are products that I understood and still do today.

But I wanted more. We did more. We eat our own meats such as venison and wild hog.

We have had free range chickens but need to replenish our stock We fish, crab, shrimp. We live off the land to avoid hormones and chemicals as much as possible. If I have to buy meat it upsets me.

I still needed more. I’ve used essential oils to make presents. Candles, pot pourri, bath scrubs and sachets, for example. For personal use, wipes and fabric softeners.

Never premium quality.

My youngest became ill this summer. For months he had a cold. Throwing up, hacking cough cold. 3 doctors and 15-17 medications later he was not well. Using Vicks only sparingly I changed tactics. I stopped all medicine and used Vicks solely. Within a few days he was well. Essential oils needed to be a bigger part of our lives. My research began. I compared 4 different companies and the different grade levels. Deciding Young Living was the best I ordered a small kit.

My son and daughter do not sleep well or fall asleep easily. One is 3 and the other 14. Stress Away, described in the catalog as relieves daily stress, encourages relaxation and reduces nervous tension, was in the kit. This would not be my first choice outbid all the oils to chose from to help with sleep but it is what I have…..My 14 year old had needed melatonin to sleep for a while. She ran out the night before last. I’ve always put my 3 year old to sleep until this week. Sunday night he ran around, wouldn’t stay in bed. I understood. Monday was easier but
more of the same. Tuesday I decided to use the oil on his feet and in our diffuser. He relaxed quicker as well as fell asleep faster. Last night the same. My husband told my daughter she didn’t need melatonin. It was in her head. We could give her a placebo and she would sleep fine. We put a few drops on her feet. She slept great.

My question is this…… Is there a placebo effect when you don’t know you are supposed to feel a certain way as in the case with my 3 year old?

I can’t wait to order more oils than the 5 I have. If you want any information I will help in any way I can.

Thanks for reading my long winded , round about post. For me it’s not a good story without a back story.

The picture above was taken the Mothers Day before my in laws 3rd child was tragically taken to heaven.

Seeing this picture in our hallway on Christmas Eve of this year, my mother in law shared that little bit of information with my husband and I ( he is the first from the left). My mother in law is a woman somewhat “of few words”. She is very private. I will leave her story quite simply with my thought in respect to her— she has LIVED BRAVER. A strong female role model for her children. As mine has been for hers.

When I think of living braver my thoughts and memories immediately, almost selfishly, envelop me. My own personal story of living bravely. I will find a way to share it one day.

But this, this is about my sister in law, Lexlee Overton. The little girl in the picture. What is so complex about human emotions, our human brain, is one persons painful memory is another’s most glorious happiest of memories.

Recently writing a post on perception, the contrast of what my mother in law and sister in law see when they look at this one moment in time strongly stood out to me. But the similarity in the afterthought, if you will, is quite similar. It was the beginning of my mother in law living braver at a whole new level and for my sister in law it was “a reminder of being a young girl who loves openly and freely”, without fear. I’m sure to an extent the same goes for my mother in law when she looks at her precious children in this picture and was BRAVE enough to have 2 more beautiful children.

Stay with me, I do have a point.
My sister in law has created a wonderful website where we can share stories, find resources and support one another to help us Live Braver. Pleaseclick here to connect to the site.

Below I attached a small excerpt from livebraver.com.

I hope you visit the site.
Share your story!
Live Braver!

excerpt from livebraver.com
Live Braver is a resource for those seeking to step beyond the confines of fear, for those seeking a more inspiring, fulfilling, and rewarding life.

The ultimate goal: to help and to support each other in finding the courage to take steps towards a life we love.

What to expect: a community filled with people like you, who want to share their stories and to inspire others to bravely embrace their life purpose.

Be inspired

Be empowered

Be IN LOVE with your life

LIVE BRAVER.

Are you ready to Live Braver?
Live Braver is a resource for those seeking to step beyond the confines of fear, for those seeking a more inspiring, fulfilling, and rewarding life.

The ultimate goal: to help and to support each other in finding the courage to take steps towards a life we love.

What to expect: a community filled with people like you, who want to share their stories and to inspire others to bravely embrace their life purpose.